


Pretty and Perfect

by velocitaes



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Bad coping mechanisms, Eating Disorders, F/M, harry isn’t so tough and unemotional after all, insecure uma, ursula is a bad mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 12:23:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12168810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velocitaes/pseuds/velocitaes
Summary: Uma remembers when it started; when she couldn't stop putting herself down.Trigger warning: mentions of an eating disorder





	Pretty and Perfect

Uma remembers when it started; when she couldn't stop putting herself down. 

 

She remembers the name shrimpy too.

 

How could she forget?

 

Mal was quick to spread it all over the Isle and it wasn't long til Harry, Uma, and Mal became Harry and Mal. Because even though her and Harry were a duo long before Mal, he didn't choose her.

 

If it weren't for Gil, she never would've rebuilt her reputation and most certainly would not have her crew. His loyalty was what made her believe in herself. Even if his loyalty sprouted from his father's neglect and rejection.

 

With the snap of the finger, Gil would have someone on their knees and at her feet. He wasn't very bright but his muscle was useful. 

 

Some could say they were a perfect combination.

 

Slowly, people started parting again when she would walk by and her signature murder looks didn't go by unnoticed anymore.

 

Now this caught Harry's interest.

 

Mal was Maleficent's daughter and that made her feared on the island, but just the two of them? They were no match for Uma and her crew.

 

That's why when he heard a couple of rugged islanders whispering about Uma wanting vengeance while he was working in his father's shop, he knew it'd be safer to leave Mal. 

 

It wasn't easy convincing Uma to make him a part of the crew, Uma's trust had diminished while he was with her sworn enemy, but she simply couldn't leave him to fend for himself. He was now in Mal's bad books and he needed someone. Plus, she couldn’t deny that they were once the best of friends and that simply wasn’t something she could brush off.

 

He was simply an extra at first, but over time, Uma stopped questioning his loyalty and eventually, she made him her right hand. That was something Gil wasn't very happy about for he had betrayed her before. However, Uma had made him see that adding someone to their duo would make them even stronger.

 

Soon they were Uma, Gil, and Harry.

 

They were a trio, a very powerful one at that.

 

Gil had his muscle and strength; Harry had his glistening hook and wicked smile that sent a shiver down anyone's spine; and Uma had two people willing to do anything for her, anything to protect her.

 

But everything after that was a blur. It all went by so fast, it gave her whiplash.

 

Mal had found a crew of her own, kids from powerful villains themselves. Evie, daughter of the Evil Queen; Jay, son of Jafar; and Carlos, son of Cruella De Vil.

 

Mal was no longer just Mal.

 

Mal turned into Mal, Jay, Evie, and Carlos.

 

They knew Mal's crew could easily be as powerful as theirs. They knew their extras wouldn't stand a chance, but that's not what they cared about. What they cared about was if they were any match for the core four.

 

They decided it'd be best not to find out.

 

They kept their distance the whole time they were on the Isle, doing their own thing. They'd steal from market people, graffiti buildings and sword fight anyone who dared stand up to them.

 

But they never bothered them.

 

They'd secretly keep trying outdo the other's acts of cruelty and it never went further than that.

 

Until soon-to-be-king of Auradon, prince Ben decided to bring children from the Isle to Auradon and settle down at their preppy school. Start fresh, have new lives.

 

And who else would he have chosen but the core four?

 

Now that was the maddest Uma has ever been and she'd been plenty mad before. She heard between all of their parents (they might have been too different to be friends but they all had one thing in common: revenge) that Maleficent had a plan to get them out of the hell hole island. 

 

Mal and her goons were supposed to steal the wand and failed because they went soft. Mal fell in love with the now king Ben and the rest chose to be "good". They were disgraces to their parents and all the villains counting on them.

 

Uma hoped they never chose to show their faces around there again or they'd deal with her. The Isle was no longer Mal's turf, it was hers.

 

Except

 

The future Lady of the Court was having a life crisis in the kingdom of princes and princesses and decided to come back for whatever reason. She chose to hide away from the crowd in a hideout of hers.

 

Then her crew and boyfriend came back to her rescue. When Uma heard from one of her pirate crew members that they caught sight of the four former villains and royalty, she knew she'd gotten an opportunity to show Mal how bad she messed up.

 

So she had her first mate nick Ben and take him away from the group. 

 

At first, she just wanted to see Mal again, one on one. She wanted so badly to rub her failure in her face and show her that she wasn't some shrimpy.

 

But then she thought about it, 

 

Why should she conform to her Isle life when she could have so much more? She could achieve what Mal couldn't and once and for all prove to her mother that she wasn't useless. Every villain would bow down to her, she'd make history.

 

So she blackmailed Mal, using her boyfriend as a pawn. See, it was simple. All she had to do was threaten the snob with throwing the king overdeck so that she'd give her the wand; the key to breaking the barrier.

 

But she was fooled by a decoy and five smoke bombs later, they were gone. She had thought for sure she'd lost but figured she could jump and swim to Auradon before the barrier closed. Finding Mal's book happened to be luck and then she had a new plan.

 

To cast a love spell on her nemesis' love and convince him to take down the barrier at Cotillion.

 

Another failure in itself.

 

One that was a lot harder to recover from. She was convinced that she had let everyone down and that she was no longer worthy of her crew.

 

However, Harry and Gil stuck with her. They didn't care that she hadn't gotten them out of the Isle, they still cared about her.

 

But Uma couldn't see that. All she saw was a good for nothing waste of space and Ursula made sure to remind her every day since the day her foolish mistake took place. 

 

"Mal is this, you're just that" , "You will never be better than her", "She might of betrayed the villains, but she's still much more successful than you'll ever be"

 

and 

 

_"Why can't you be more like Mal?"_

 

And well that would've been enough to make anyone's self esteem crumble. Or maybe Uma was just being dramatic just like her mother said every time she caught her crying in the Fish and Chips' kitchen.

 

So she tried, oh how hard she tried.

 

She constantly compared herself to the purple haired, fair skinned beauty who somehow managed to get whatever she wanted and did whatever she could to be close enough to perfect like her.

 

She went days without eating, she was extra mean to her mother's customers because after all, this was the Isle, and she practiced defense moves that counted as her daily exercise. 

 

She wanted _tobeprettyandperfectand  
prettyandperfectandprettyandperfect_ just like Mal.

 

And as time passed, her defense moves got sloppier, her already-to-begin-with lean body grew weaker and frailer. She was snappier to Harry and Gil for their jokes that had long since stopped being funny to her, and sometimes all she could see was black.

 

She didn't think anyone would notice the Isle's biggest loser falling to pieces, but someone did.

 

Harry noticed.

 

He noticed that Uma would throw food at the tv whenever something came on about Auradon until there was nothing left on the tray, a trick so that she wouldn't have to eat it and he noticed that the Fish & Chips' floor was practically covered in hairballs because he didn't care what Uma said, dust bunnies were not blue. He noticed that her once nice fitting custom made clothing hung loose on her feeble frame and that she would fumble for something to hold on to every time she got up to stop the swaying. And he noticed a panting and sweaty Uma come in through the back door with a bucket in her hand and a "Went to get some fish" when he knew very well that the barrier covered up whatever water that fish could swim in.

 

He noticed it all.

 

However, he knew that Uma could be hard headed and wouldn't admit to it if he confronted her so it wasn't until one sunny day while Uma was out "getting fish" when he heard the metal clanking sound of a bucket followed by a thud, that he feared it was time to have a chat.

 

Uma claimed she had _fallenanditwasso hotoutsideIswearI'mokay_ but Harry knew better. Watching her hipbones jut out from underneath the thin blanket that covered up her demons and secrets was enough for him to break.

 

"How could you do this to yourself?" He said, voice cracking.

 

She didn't dare meet his eyes.

 

"Answer me dammit!"

 

"Mal."

 

"Would you care to elaborate?"

 

His confused stare bore into her own. 

 

He just didn't get it.

 

Nonetheless, Uma took a deep breath before continuing.

 

"I am an awful captain. I promised my crew, my people that I would get them off this forsaken island and I couldn't do it, not even because I tried twice. How can I compete with someone so capable, so much more calculative than me? How could I not take it personally Harry, when my own mother takes five seconds out of her day to make me feel incompetent in comparison to someone that has succeeded a great deal?"

 

It was a long time before Harry replied.

 

"Uma, Uma, Uma. I would have hoped that you'd know your strengths by now. Just because you messed up a couple o' times doesn't mean your a failure: it just means that your human. Well, half human/half octopus,"

 

Uma chuckled a bit at that.

 

"Point is, your an amazing captain and anyone who says you aren't, ought to have a nice talk with my hook. Your also a lot more bloody good looking when yer not struggling to keep them eyes open and when ye actually laugh at me jokes." He smiled, taking her hand and giving it a small kiss.

 

She tried not to cry, but she couldn't help it because dammit Harry why did you choose this moment to be so emotionally transparent?

 

"I will help you along the way my captain, one day at a time."

**Author's Note:**

> So this is kind of my first descendants one shot and I was pretty nervous because I didn't want anything to seem out of character for Uma or Harry, but I like it. I don't believe there's any eating disorder fics that have to do with Uma and I wanted to show a different way of coping after her loss against the Auradonians so here you go! Hope you enjoyed, please leave a kudos if you liked xx


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